Sunday, 15 February 2015

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955

You’ve probably already guessed that you’re in for a whole load of numbers. Lots and lots of them. I’m still saving up spare words for Christmas. Don’t expect many.

Where to start? I know. With some numbers.

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955
(lbs)

Year

Production
(barrels)

Malt

Corn
and corn products

Rice

Wheat

Barley

Sorghum grains and
sorghum products

Soybeans
and soybean prods.

sugar
and syrups

Other
materials

total

1941

55,213,850

1,954,267,618

432,341,547

204,297,333

3,508,975

—

—

—

135,531,375

—

2,729,946,848

1942

63,716,697

2,260,303,931

566,807,517

171,364,293

3,712,050

—

—

—

147,271,062

—

3,149,458,853

1943

71,018,257

2,393,607,097

722,377,366

152,546,147

5,723,799

—

—

—

150,954,828

4,990,702

3,430,199,939

1944

81,725,820

2,290,435,572

873,894,609

185,699,432

35,879,734

187,376,446

(a)

(b)

183,936,092

9,133,202

3,766,355,087

1945

86,604,080

2,198,690,447

939,959,948

214,607,248

50,214,535

175,922,987

110,895,011

5,172,693

238,599,315

185,866

3,934,248,050

1946

84,977,700

2,163,269,238

790,676,699

240,830,895

48,056,971

159,593,299

156,556,138

6,691,056

226,412,612

5,739,591

3,797,826,499

1947

87,856,902

2,513,788,652

719,300,506

172,199,735

769,790

13,777,421

88,995,670

4,885,118

218,598,828

114,352,672

3,846,668,392

1948

91,291,219

2,796,262,968

810,144,155

302,281,030

5,129,348

7,962,618

34,821,925

4,126,934

193,275,206

26,857,753

4,180,861,937

1949

89,735,647

2,751,293,954

818,113,488

299,961,581

6,927,460

6,464,395

7,999,695

3,920,970

180,631,082

17,635,770

4,092,948,395

1950

88,807,075

2,707,240,886

852,074,810

320,830,068

7,284,480

3,701,700

629,392

3,701,383

154,875,158

285,520

4,050,623,397

1951

88,976,226

2,676,405,176

876,103,113

339,116,702

6,525,193

2,579,632

193,600

3,295,380

136,114,360

15,474

4,040,348,630

1952

89,600,916

2,653,518,877

920,372,813

337,305,542

6,236,085

802,828

829,650

3,099,651

119,930,017

8,676

4,042,104,139

1953

90,433,832

2,666,095,392

963,028,027

324,920,748

6,203,690

522,790

29,600

2,714,324

115,445,233

8,000

4,078,967,804

1954

92,561,067

2,727,540,671

1,004,501,475

313,680,318

5,986,583

363,900

67,500

2,020,341

113,417,170

—

4,167,577,958

1955

89,791,154

2,627,010,323

913,693,701

375,111,692

5,423,575

357,920

—

1,601,610

108,604,325

—

4,031,803,146

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You know the drill. These numbers make much more sense as percentages:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955
(%)

Year

Malt

Corn
and corn products

Rice

Wheat

Barley

Sorghum grains and
sorghum products

Soybeans
and soybean prods.

sugar
and syrups

Other
materials

1941

71.59%

15.84%

7.48%

0.13%

4.96%

1942

71.77%

18.00%

5.44%

0.12%

4.68%

1943

69.78%

21.06%

4.45%

0.17%

4.40%

0.15%

1944

60.81%

23.20%

4.93%

0.95%

4.98%

4.88%

0.24%

1945

55.89%

23.89%

5.45%

1.28%

4.47%

2.82%

0.13%

6.06%

0.00%

1946

56.96%

20.82%

6.34%

1.27%

4.20%

4.12%

0.18%

5.96%

0.15%

1947

65.35%

18.70%

4.48%

0.02%

0.36%

2.31%

0.13%

5.68%

2.97%

1948

66.88%

19.38%

7.23%

0.12%

0.19%

0.83%

0.10%

4.62%

0.64%

1949

67.22%

19.99%

7.33%

0.17%

0.16%

0.20%

0.10%

4.41%

0.43%

1950

66.84%

21.04%

7.92%

0.18%

0.09%

0.02%

0.09%

3.82%

0.01%

1951

66.24%

21.68%

8.39%

0.16%

0.06%

0.00%

0.08%

3.37%

0.00%

1952

65.65%

22.77%

8.34%

0.15%

0.02%

0.02%

0.08%

2.97%

0.00%

1953

65.36%

23.61%

7.97%

0.15%

0.01%

0.00%

0.07%

2.83%

0.00%

1954

65.45%

24.10%

7.53%

0.14%

0.01%

0.00%

0.05%

2.72%

1955

65.16%

22.66%

9.30%

0.13%

0.01%

0.04%

2.69%

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

You can see that the malt content is continuing to fall, dropping to below 60% in 1945 and 1946. I assume that WW II thing had something to do with that. And with the use of raw barley and sorghum 1944 to 1946.

War-influenced years aside, there were only really four ingredients used in any quantities: malt, maize, rice and sugar. Though the quantities of the latter were quite small.

Now pounds of material per US barrel:

Materials used in brewing in the USA 1941 - 1955
(lbs per barrel)

Year

Malt

Corn
and corn products

Rice

Wheat

Barley

Sorghum grains and
sorghum products

Soybeans
and soybean prods.

sugar
and syrups

Other
materials

Total

1941

35.4

7.8

3.7

0.06

—

—

—

2.5

—

49.46

1942

35.5

8.9

2.7

0.06

—

—

—

2.3

—

49.46

1943

33.7

10.2

2.1

0.08

—

—

—

2.1

0.07

48.25

1944

28.0

10.7

2.3

0.44

2.3

(a)

(b)

2.3

0.11

46.15

1945

25.4

10.9

2.5

0.58

2

1.3

0.06

2.8

0.002

45.54

1946

25.5

9.3

2.8

0.57

1.9

1.8

0.08

2.7

0.07

44.72

1947

28.6

8.2

2.0

0.009

0.2

1

0.06

2.5

1.3

43.87

1948

30.6

8.9

3.3

0.06

0.09

0.38

0.05

2.1

0.29

45.77

1949

30.7

9.1

3.3

0.08

0.07

0.09

0.04

2

0.2

45.58

1950

30.5

9.6

3.6

0.08

0.04

0.007

0.04

1.7

0.003

45.57

1951

30.1

9.8

3.8

0.07

0.03

0.002

0.04

1.5

0.0002

45.34

1952

29.6

10.3

3.8

0.07

0.009

0.009

0.03

1.3

0.0001

45.12

1953

29.5

10.6

3.6

0.07

0.006

0.0003

0.03

1.3

0.0001

45.11

1954

29.5

10.9

3.4

0.06

0.004

0.007

0.02

1.2

—

45.09

1955

29.3

10.2

4.2

0.06

0.004

—

0.02

1.2

—

44.98

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

Falling amounts of material per barrel can only mean one thing – falling average gravity. This is my calculation, based on 89 brewer’s pounds per imperial quarter:

YEAR

estimated average
OG

1941

1050.79

1942

1050.79

1943

1049.55

1944

1047.39

1945

1046.77

1946

1045.93

1947

1045.05

1948

1047.00

1949

1046.81

1950

1046.80

1951

1046.56

1952

1046.33

1953

1046.32

1954

1046.31

1955

1046.20

You’ll see that this is remarkably similar to what happened in the UK – falling until just after the war then stabilising in the 1950’s.

Average UK gravity

Year

average OG

1941

1038.51

1942

1035.53

1943

1034.34

1944

1034.63

1945

1034.54

1946

1034.72

1947

1032.59

1948

1032.66

1949

1033.43

1950

1033.88

1951

1036.99

1952

1037.07

1953

1036.87

1954

1036.97

1955

1037.13

Sources:

Brewers' Almanack 1955, p. 50

Brewers' Almanack 1962, p. 48

Right. Some more UK numbers:

Materials
used in brewing in the UK 1941 - 1955 (lbs)

year

malt

unmalted corn

rice, maize, etc

sugar

total malt &
adjuncts

bulk barrels

1941

1,230,702,256

1,332,464

27,636,784

156,535,904

1,416,207,408

28,170,582

1942

1,222,827,424

5,896,352

42,807,184

158,079,264

1,429,610,224

29,584,656

1943

1,152,180,064

4,546,304

138,676,496

156,864,176

1,452,267,040

29,811,321

1944

1,189,570,816

16,036,496

139,005,552

163,368,464

1,507,981,328

31,380,684

1945

1,168,743,744

27,524,112

149,187,584

199,815,168

1,545,270,608

31,990,334

1946

1,117,423,776

15,428,000

126,867,776

200,482,352

1,460,201,904

31,066,950

1947

1,058,876,336

10,413,088

68,805,520

179,332,832

1,317,427,776

30,103,180

1948

1,063,976,928

7,833,168

67,970,672

161,678,496

1,301,459,264

28,813,725

1949

1,017,783,312

6,799,408

56,567,952

145,959,744

1,227,110,416

26,744,457

1950

1,018,538,864

6,291,488

50,904,000

144,018,224

1,219,752,576

25,339,062

1951

1,039,601,024

6,460,272

50,689,072

151,777,024

1,248,527,392

24,870,564

1952

1,042,992,944

5,823,104

52,325,168

155,213,632

1,256,354,848

25,285,589

1953

1,017,597,056

6,497,344

47,756,352

157,377,248

1,229,228,000

24,789,130

1954

966,476,224

5,848,528

51,744,560

166,275,760

1,190,345,072

24,153,387

1955

967,178,464

5,214,272

53,552,800

171,276,672

1,197,222,208

24,324,623

Sources:

Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62

1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

Now as the more useful percentages:

Materials
used in brewing in the UK 1941 - 1955 (%)

Year

malt

unmalted corn

rice, maize, etc

sugar

lbs
per Imp. barrel

lbs
per US barrel

1941

86.90%

0.09%

1.95%

11.05%

50.3

36.0

1942

85.54%

0.41%

2.99%

11.06%

48.3

34.6

1943

79.34%

0.31%

9.55%

10.80%

48.7

34.9

1944

78.88%

1.06%

9.22%

10.83%

48.1

34.5

1945

75.63%

1.78%

9.65%

12.93%

48.3

34.6

1946

76.53%

1.06%

8.69%

13.73%

47.0

33.7

1947

80.37%

0.79%

5.22%

13.61%

43.8

31.4

1948

81.75%

0.60%

5.22%

12.42%

45.2

32.4

1949

82.94%

0.55%

4.61%

11.89%

45.9

32.9

1950

83.50%

0.52%

4.17%

11.81%

48.1

34.5

1951

83.27%

0.52%

4.06%

12.16%

50.2

36.0

1952

83.02%

0.46%

4.16%

12.35%

49.7

35.6

1953

82.78%

0.53%

3.89%

12.80%

49.6

35.6

1954

81.19%

0.49%

4.35%

13.97%

49.3

35.3

1955

80.79%

0.44%

4.47%

14.31%

49.2

35.3

Sources:

Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62

1971 Brewers'Almanack, page 54

You can see that the malt percentage was much higher in the UK and never fell below 75%. The war seems to have affected maize usage the most. The dip in the early war years was doubtless due to the difficulties of importing it. The surge in its use in the later war years was probably due to renewed supplies from the USA.

Now for hops.

Hop usage in the USA 1934 - 1940

YEAR

HOPS

LBS./
BBL.

1941

31,154,676

0.56

1942

34,511,559

0.54

1943

34,833,108

0.49

1944

36,514,843

0.45

1945

37,085,950

0.43

1946

37,555,031

0.44

1947

40,506,913

0.46

1948

41,576,128

0.46

1949

39,629,621

0.44

1950

37,889,576

0.43

1951

36,231,622

0.41

1952

35,233,507

0.39

1953

34,944,509

0.39

1954

35,127,350

0.38

1955

33,736,717

0.38

Source:

Various editions of the "The Brewers Almanac"

The amount of hops used per barrel continued to fall. While in the UK it was much more constant:

Hop usage in the UK 1941 - 1955

year

bulk barrels

hops( lbs)

hops lbs/Imperial barrel

hops lbs/US barrel

1941

28,170,582

28,151,648

1.00

0.72

1942

29,584,656

24,976,784

0.84

0.61

1943

29,811,321

25,937,968

0.87

0.62

1944

31,380,684

27,316,800

0.87

0.62

1945

31,990,334

27,420,064

0.86

0.61

1946

31,066,950

25,334,064

0.82

0.58

1947

30,103,180

24,389,008

0.81

0.58

1948

28,813,725

25,924,640

0.90

0.65

1949

26,744,457

26,113,696

0.98

0.70

1950

25,339,062

26,093,648

1.03

0.74

1951

24,870,564

25,659,872

1.03

0.74

1952

25,285,589

25,593,344

1.01

0.73

1953

24,789,130

25,263,728

1.02

0.73

1954

24,153,387

24,286,192

1.01

0.72

1955

24,324,623

24,384,192

1.00

0.72

Source:

1971 Brewers' Almanack, page 54

1953 Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 62.

Again, using the standard barrel to iron out the difference in average gravity between the US and UK, the difference is even more striking:

-- that soybeans were used as yeast nutrient, and "hydrolyzed soy protein directly to the beer improves foam stability, flavor and body of the beer."

Does that sound plausible? The only other possibility I can think of is that surplus soy meal might have been a cheap source of starch, but it's hard for me to imagine that it would be cheaper than corn in the US. Any idea if this was done elsewhere?